Live improvised set from some happening or concert of this obscure project from Kuldiga, Latvia.

Bonus live trax are from band D.U.R.A.K.

D.U.R.A.K. as a side-project was created in autumn of year 1996. The setup of the band for that time was Klusais (Vonosonoloppus) - drums, Struhs (Vonosonoloppus) - guitar, Agnese - bass, Mâris (ex - Dilonis, ex - Capajevs Vagons) fuzz bass, Peks (ex - Capajevs Vagons) - voc.

This project created some songs and even has a live performance at the „Trobels” gig, November 96. After some time Klusais grows bored and Struhs takes his place, and almost all songs are created at that time, which later are recorded and brought out on tape. Struhs leaves the band and Gatis (ex - Silver, ex - Gegen) takes his place.

The new line - up was: Agnese - bass guitar, Mâris -fuzzbass/voc, Gatis - drums, and in August 97 D.U.R.A.K.`s first and only EP tape with seven songs is recorded and brought out by De La Muitnieks Tapes. After a little while Gunars (Guntars Lankovskis) came to play fuzzbass and Muitnieks shifted to the role of vocalist, and one live show was played with this line - up of the band. In November Gatis left, and there was no one to play the drums. for Valmiera gig (February 1998) Edzs from Vonsonoloppus was invited to kick the living hell out of the drum set, but after the live show which was really a great one the band split up for some time.

In autumn 99 rehearsals were re - started wiht brand new drummer Zvejnieks, inviting Peks as the vocalist again. The last line- up of hte band was: Agnese - bass, Muitnieks - fuzzbass, Peks - voc, Zvejnieks - drums. with th line - up 2 songs were recorded at some studio in Riga on January 2000 for Odekolons comp. tape. Soon after the band stops its existence for uncertain time...

štvrtok, 25. septembra 2014

MOSKWA is a Polish punk-rock band created in 1983 by Paweł "Guma" Gumola (guitar, vocal), Piotr "Rogoza" Rogoziński (bass guitar, vocal) and Tomek "Pałker" Gron (drums) in Łódz city.
Here you can hear their concert from 1992.

My new group is RUBY KARINTO. Two women, two men: Damon – bass, Soma – electronics/oscillator, Jason – drums, Ai – vocals. We play no-wave R&B / trashy groove…Ai is Japanese, so the lyrics are in two languages. Damon and I played together in Seat Belt 1992-94, Soma and I played in Recapitation in recent years. Ruby Karinto will have their debut 7” out soon.Jason

Supreme Echo is music label from Canada which defines itself as "Extraordinary Music Archives". The man behind it is Jason Flower, a music freak into many genres of music. We meet two times, first in Wroclaw, Poland on a DIY Punk music festival and secondly in the Slovakian mountains. Jason is great guy, and absolutely loves talking about music so we spend our time that way. He is interesting mainly about East-European punk/metal/new wave but also jazz and many, many other styles too.

Hello Jason, introduce little bit your self...where you got your passion for music? It was any musician in your family?

I've been writing, recording, archiving, producing, and playing music since 1984.
I grew up listening to my parents 60-70s rock LPs & neighbours heavy metal records. My grandfather in Australia played violin, my uncle in Canada played guitar...but the only real artist is my estranged uncle Goeffrey DeGroen in Australia, he is a famous painter.

The passion for music came from escapism; day-dreaming of far away sounds & places. My parents met in Europe when travelling and both always spoke about it as the greatest experience in their life, I felt and feel the same. I say "escapism" because I was never content with my home surroundings, expectations others put on me, and felt different from the people around me. At age 10 I began to strongly embrace the music I was growing up with; Kiss, AC/DC, Joan Jett, Black Sabbath, Quiet Riot, and alot of 80s punk groups, etc. I was enrolled in a special program at school called “enrichment” that gave me the chance to do a historical research project. I believe it was that school program that spearheaded my eventual desire to become an archivist.

What is the main idea of your label?

The main purpose of Supreme Echo is to document little known and forgotten music groups from a few specific regions of the world which I am most fascinated with, as well as the region of Canada which I am from. So far, the former Socialist Republic of Poland, the Republic of Georgia, and my home province of British Columbia. All my releases are 100% authorized based on visiting & working directly with the artists.

Before you had the label BREAK EVEN and put out many records. Is there some different between these two labels?

Yes, everything is different. Break Even was originally a label to represent my friends groups which I recorded in my basement. I started recording bands in 1988, and in 1989 began to help produce cassettes and vinyl in small quantities. These releases were in fact self-financed by each individual group which all agreed to the "Break Even" label slogan simply to further legitimize their product and its promotion. It allowed many local bands to create the illusion of being on a label, and it helped promote them internationally. Some notable musicians I recorded later went onto be in such groups as: Submission Hold, 3 Inches of Blood, Ghosts, Kinnie Starr, and Hot Hot Heat. From 1989 to 1998 Break Even helped create a total of roughly 70 individual releases on vinyl, cassette, and CD.

Supreme Echo creates archival documents; no modern groups. I don’t have the time or money to promote active bands. I’m maintaining a very high standard of re-mastering, restoration, graphic design, written information, printing and pressing. The label is not profit making, but simply a passion. It takes a long time to complete each release because I am very meticulous in gathering complete information, only using original images and recordings, and travelling to meet the musicians.

One of the most successful editions on your previous label record Break Even was NEOS "Fight with Donald". When did you discover this crazy band?

“Fight With Donald” was what made me realize I was good at creating archival releases. I discovered the Neos at age 14 when doing a radio show on CFUV 101.9 FM, they're from Victoria and one of the pioneers of "hardcore". I met Steve (guitar) as a teenager, and a few years later Kev (bass) invited me to sing for a band he was forming using the same model as the Neos; fast short song; the band was Mexican Power Authority.

The Neos played their last show in 1983 and then continued with a studio project named Harvest of Seaweed. There was another group similar to the Neos named Jerk Ward, Kev started up Sludge Confrontations with their drummer. Later Jerk Ward mutated into a band named Mission Of Christ and Kev joined them. I saw M.O.C. play many times, they signed to Metal Blade but never recorded/released an album. The Neos material has been bootlegged a lot, and I have procrastinated reissuing it, but one day I will do an LP of their EP's and melodic unreleased material originally written for an LP in 1983.

Do you remember the first record ever which you bought?

It was 1984, speed and death metal cassettes on Banzai Records such as Venom & Metallica in 1984. The first mail-order LP was Thrash Queen (1985), an all-women lo-fi feminist metal group. Some critics consider it one of the worst metal LP's ever made, but I like it! The first local demo I bought was Armoros "Debut Assault" (1986) demo, thereafter I began to buy all the local punk and hardcore demos and correspond with people allover the world via tape trading.

When did you discover indie music?

I knew a local heavy metal group named Intruder when I was 11, but had already seen rock bands when I was a kid. My friend Jeremy, whom I've known since birth and played with in Stick Farm (1989-91) had grown up seeing Nomeansno as a child; such things happened here. I suppose my true consciousness of differentiating between independent and commercial music was in 1983 when I started to go to music shops, but I was very young and it wasn't until 1986 that I began to collect local music.

When did you begin to travel for music and bands?

I was about 20 when I began to feel very empty & unsatisfied in Victoria, so that was 1993. I still feel unsatisfied with familiarity and more comfortable in environments where I'm truly the outsider. The only solution to this dis-ease, is to day dream, travel, and make archival records. I began to visit my pen-pals, toured with the pre-group of Submission Hold, named Insult to Injury...later I toured Canada with my groups MPA and Third World Planet. I will always travel and search for music everywhere in the world.

When did you first travel to Europe and which countries did you visit?

I was always fascinated with Poland since I was a kid; the language & the contemporary music of the 80s (punk, metal, jazz, rock). I used to drink Polish Inka coffee as a teen and write to metal-heads & punks when it was still communist. I wanted the challenge of culture shock, because Canada & Switzerland (where i lived for 2 years) were too easy and void of any magic. Poland was hard but the people had sparks & passion. I met the right people from Wroclaw and knew it instinctively, so I moved there and soon after met a woman and miraculously fell in love.

What was your impression of Europe, the people of the punk scene? How did you feel about the scene in the Czech Republic of the other half of 90´s. And what about India? Did you find at that time in 1997 some punk / metal bands in India?

When I first came in 1997 it very exciting for me. Mexican Power Authority had pockets of fans everywhere and I was meeting with a lot of old pen-pals. I love how culturally diverse Europe is, and the architecture is exactly what an aesthetically sensitive person like myself thrives on. The Czech scene was great, there were a lot of groups I loved; Mrtva Budoucnot was a favourite at the time. I also loved the jazz-punk scene, metal, rock, psych, jazz, etc. However I grew out of much of it and now only hold onto the music which is connected to sentiment. India? Amazing, it changed my life; 6 months, North – South, West – East, Andaman & Nicobar, Sikkim…yes I bought over 50+ cassettes and found two heavy metal tapes. Millennium from Bangalore, and The Crisis from Nepal.

How did you come to the Polish alternative music in Canada in the 80's? Can you mention a few bands which fascinated you?

In 1987 I saw a documentary program on the Polish Jazz scene and the same year I bought a cassette bootleg made by US label ”Media Blitz” of the Tonpress v/a LP “Jak Punk To Punk” with The Corpse demo '88 added to the end of it. Soon after I began writing with punks & metal-heads there. Eternal Torment ‘zine was amazing, still one of the best from that era. Back in the 80s I loved Rejestracja, Separator, Wilczy Pajak, Siekiera, Dezerter, Abaddon, HCP, Process, TZN Xenna, Imperator, Schizmopathic, Po Prostu, Slashing Death, and many more.

Ok, let´s go to your first order of business on SUPREME ECHO – a Polish punk compilation called „Victim Of Safety Pin“. How did it go with old punks, bands members and what was their response to the issue of their old stuff on vinyl?

When Victim of Safety Pin was initiated there had not yet been a boom of Polish punk reissues, and nobody had touched the original era 1977-82. It was impressive for the musicians that I was Canadian, and when I said it would be vinyl-only they immediately and eagerly agreed. Everyone was quite receptive, only Zykzak from TZN Xenna was sceptical, but that quickly changed when we met - he turned out to be one of the most personable of them all. Robal from Dezerter met with me many times…Magura (Deadlock/Kryzys) and I still keep in contact with each other. For me the most magical moment was the response of Tomek Lipinski (from Tilt); his words, smile, and look in his eyes shined allover me, I felt proud.

Then you set about mapping the Georgian underground. The first thing was CD of post-punk RETSEPTI and I know that now you are preparing other records of their old punk/ metal/rock bands on vinyl. What makes you so fascinated by Georgian music?

I love Georgia, its my favourite place visited until now, its crazy but I love it. It's not simply a fascination with their music but instead a love for the people and everything they have cultivated over their history. The Caucasus is a part of the world which unfortunately has known conflict and war, however it is also an ancient region rich in diversity, colours, wonderful food (!!!), polyphonic singing, beautiful architecture & geography, etc. all due to the bold character of its people. I'm planning a compilation LP on the 80s-90s scene, titled "Qartveli Rokerebi" with 8-10 groups, but it will take a long time to complete. In the meantime I've become friends with many of those old musicians; Gogi, the singer of Moritur...Zviadi from Komendatis Saati...Lado from Retsepti...Levan from Mdzime Jwari...Robi from Outsider...many more.

I have collected a large amount of Georgian folk, funk, psych, beat, jazz, punk, rap, metal, etc. Georgian singing is incredible, and their traditional styles are heard in most contemporary music as well. Ironically their tradition is not strongly featured in much of the punk & metal, but you still have that unique and beautiful Qartuli language, and the groups to be on the v/a LP are very special.

How did you contacted punk people in Georgia?

My introduction was thru the semi-legitimate Retsepti 7" EP that Rudiger Nitz facilitated for Luk Haas of TAM 89 Records. When I first went there in the summer 2000 it was still a strange & unsafe place to visit, but of course people were friendly like anywhere. People had told us bands practised at the old conservatory of music, so my partner & I were walking down the street on the left bank looking for it when a freakish looking guy saw us and came up to say hello, then took us to the conservatory where we immediately met musicians. His name was DJ Temo, and he was able to take us right to Lado Burduli. Lado and I kept in touch and after 6 years of very hard work, the original Retsepti masters were restored and I pried an interview out of him to create the CD. It had always been planned as an LP, however he kept insisting on CD because he held the format with prestige (and ego!). I have authorization for a reissue on LP.

Lado then introduced us to many musicians, including not only his local comrades but also his rivals. We were connected to the Kutaisi punks as well, which was a city with a totally different scene and at one point very vibrant. Kutaisi is where Outsider came from; they were the sole Georgian group to have an LP released - good luck finding it. After the beginnings, it was just a case of my own investigation of gathering names, obsessing over the chronology of the Tbilisi alternative music scene, and ignoring gossip in order to include as many groups and people as possible and befriend them. I give credit to my ex-wife Anna Fuszara whom studied Cultural Anthropology, for helping greatly with the massive archiving and interview process which was undertaken.

You mentioned Lasha Gabunia, old punk from Kutaisi and music critic promoting Georgian alternative music. How did you meet him?

Lado connected me to Lasha and we became good friends. He's a great person and completely passionate about music. Lasha had a TV show in the chaotic early 1990s in Kutaisi when the scene was booming with Outsider at the forefront. As a music critic, he had no choice but to graduate to a larger city to survive using his expertise. Lasha is the main media historian of Georgian underground.

How is the punk scene in Georgia today compared of the 80´s?

Now most of it sounds much more Western, more homogenized, however most groups still sing in Georgian and there do still exist groups melding ethnic melodies with contemporary music. It is much easier today to get equipment and there are rock festivals, but its still not easy to be an alternative musician in Georgia; the scene is small, society is conservative, traditional & nationalistic. I think when music is brought to you thru the prism of television or radio without real face to face exposure, people create their own hybrid interpretation of styles and fads; but Georgia has incredibly strong self character added in.

Did you visit some record shops, clubs, venues there?

There were no record shops, but my friend was planning to open a cafe/bar with LPs in it. There are not many punk bands, its more like a scattered scene of single groups from different genres; death metal, ska, alternative rock, traditional heavy metal, post punk/new wave, hip hop, electronic, punk rock...all make up the small Tbilisi underground.

What about punk gigs, zines/magazines or record labels?

There aren't many places in the region for groups to play. From Tbilisi, a group would probably only go to Kutaisi and Batumi in Georgia, and then perhaps Baku (Azerbaijan) and Yerevan (Armenia). If a group is very ambitious they could go to Ankara & Istanbul in Turkey, but that's a big trip. Within Tbilisi there are some nice clubs for alternative music groups to play.

Retsepti's CD cover is from an old underground art zine...sure there must have been some old art & music zines but i don't know them. There is or was an indie label named Bravo, and there is a studio named Sano...but I don't think either one do much underground music. There are some culture magazines featuring modern groups.

Retsepti's CD was very popular in Georgia and Lado claims to have sold it for very high prices. Myself, I struggled to sell it because despite the great reviews, CD is a dead format in the West. Fred from Darbouka Records (TAM 89 distributor) once said "if it had been an LP it would have sold out". I do plan to reissue it on LP, its already authorized and I have paid Lado royalties so its just a matter of if/when i choose to do it.

Are you looking also for actual bands, or just or old ones?

No, I am not looking for new bands. I am happy to hear/see them but my work is focused on history only.

Tell us about your book project “All Your Ears Can Hear: Underground Music in Victoria, BC 1978-84”. How much time did it take, who all worked on it, and how are you satisfied with the result?

It took 5 years to make, the main work was done by myself (Jason Flower), Kev Smith, and Ricky Long. I am quite satisfied with the result, but regret that it did not include the following groups: Royal, Terry Gilbert, Zipper, Lightdreams, The Shooz, Low Fun, and a few more. The book was not intended to be exclusively "punk", but the editor cut some music out of it. We won the 2007 M-Award for "best non-ficton book in Victoria". It's an 80 page book with 2 CD's containing 79 songs by 46 bands: INFAMOUS SCIENTISTS, PINK STEEL, CLIX, AUTOMATIC SHOCK, SICKFUCKS, JERK WARD, VELOX STREPITUS, BEATEN RETARDS, NOMEANSNO, RED TIDE, KEYS, NEOS, CENSORED CHAOS, RESISTANCE, ASCENSIONS, EASY MONEY, DIOXYN, MALCOLM DEW-JONES, DISHRAGS, TWISTED MINDS, DISTORTION, DO-WOPS, FAKE DOGS, PURPLE CITY, SQUIRRELS IN BONDAGE, TROUBLE BOYS, HOUSE OF COMMONS, NOISE GENERATION, NEMATODES, NEVAR, COMMODES, DAYGLOW ABORTIONS, RYVALS, SUBURBAN MENACE, HARVEST OF SEAWEED, MASS APPEAL, DA JEEP, SLUDGE CONFRONTATIONS, TUMOURS, NUCLEAR ERRORS, RAY LUXEMBURG, NU-LIB, DIVINE RIGHT, SLIVERS, DISRUPT, and SALTY SEAMEN.

The Northern Haze “Sinnaktuq” LP. Where did those guys meet? There are probably not so many Eskimo bands playing hard ´n´ heavy with the influence of BLACK SABBATH?

There is a history of Inuit rock in Greenland, Yakutia, and Northern Canada. Canada had rock groups starting in the early 1970s when radio & television were introduced. One of the oldest Inuit rock groups is Sugluk, they played a garage style. Northern Haze were something special, they took the music to a higher level of composition.

They were born on the land to Nomadic parents and later settled in the hamlet community of Igloolik. As childhood friends they grew up learning to play on toy instruments until becoming accomplished musicians and forming a group in 1977. Their talent won success in the early '80s with contests, press coverage, and tours of isolated Northern communities until in '85 when CBC Radio invited them to travel 3000 km south to record an album. The result became the first Canadian Inuit Rock/Metal album ever made and first Indigenous language rock album in North America. Over the 1990's and into the millennium, Northern Haze endured great hardship yet 35+ years on they still prevail. In 2010, a new recording and a documentary film on the history of the group was produced on location in the Arctic.

What about feedback to your archival work?

Based on the depth and detail of the booklets that each release has, I’ve received praise and positivity from both critics and consumers alike. When one archive is a success and the musicians are pleased with the overall project results, it often acts as a passport towards other groups of the same scene which I may wish to release.

What is the criteria to choose the bands you want to release?

It’s a matter of documenting something that (in my opinion) nobody else has yet done. The Canadian proto-punk and proto-metal 45s on Supreme Echo exist because we can now look back retrospectively and rediscover them. Psych from Azerbaijan, Inuit doom, Qartuli Punk, etc... Supreme Echo archives are soundtracks to forgotten scenes of the past.

You´ve sent nice picture with Luk Haas. Are you in contact with him? How did you meet him in Abkazia? Are there some punks in this country? Are you in the contact with some other record labels focusing to exotic underground scenes?

Luk and I have been in contact since 1991 and always wanted to meet. He helped me to visit him in Abkhazia when he was heading the Red Cross there, it was a dangerous but beautiful place to be. Punks? Well in 2013 punk is mostly an urban lifestyle/image and Abkhazia is a war-torn region that is full of instability, post-war trauma, corruption, drugs, and Russian tourists...but interestingly one evening after dinner we in fact saw an Abkhaz heavy metal group perform and they did songs in Abkhazian, very cool.

To even imagine if there were “punks” there just seems naive and unrealistic, but there are people listening to punk music everywhere in the world, and Abkhazians are struggling to survive and rebuild their lives.

I know you like to searching record in street markets. What jewels did you find in last years?

I know that you love different kind of music from different parts of world. Can you put some few names - the most forgotten bands (scenes) according to you - from past and from present?

That’s really the hardest question to answer…there were rock bands everywhere in the 60’s and still underground groups everywhere, even more than ever thanks to the internet and all the technological break-throughs. The only scene i will mention is Zamrock. First discovering the Zambian rock scene thru file sharing back in 2005 and then watching labels like Now Again and Strawberry Rain (amongst others) reissue them has been really exciting. But honestly, get out a map, type a country name and a music genre into an internet search engine and find it for yourself. Even better, go travel to unpopular destinations. The world is yours to discover!

Jason, besides the releasing of records on your label, you've played in many bands. What was the first musical instrument on which you played? How many bands did you play? Tell about your current band sound, lyrics, gigs, releases ...

Most of the aforementioned released vinyl or cassettes, and recordings exist for all of them. I hope to make a compilation of them one day, perhaps someone reading would like to help release it.

My new group is RUBY KARINTO. Two women, two men: Damon – bass, Soma – electronics/oscillator, Jason – drums, Ai – vocals. We play no-wave R&B / trashy groove…Ai is Japanese, so the lyrics are in two languages. Damon and I played together in Seat Belt 1992-94, Soma and I played in Recapitation in recent years. Ruby Karinto will have their debut 7” out soon.

MPA was probably your most popular band if I may say so. A few years ago you made reunion. How did it go? What is MPA doing today?

After 10 years break, MPA reformed in 2007 and did some big concerts playing a “best of” our old material, it was a great success. We decided to make another chapter of music, so we discussed what kind of music we wanted to play. We recorded over 1 hour of material; our new LP is titled “Cold Natural Facts”. I am not interested in playing music with MPA again so in my opinion its finished since 2010…but there will be some releases.

You are active into the punk/metal scene almost last 30 years. What differences do you see nowadays?

I grew up in a rural suburb between a town and a city in an era when MTV began and punk & metal identities/subcultures were still clashing with each other. Crossover erupted in front of me as a melding of two subcultures. As a kid, the identity really engulfed my existence, it was my escapism and creative outlet. It was a phase and a stepping stone which to this day reminds me to not submit to mainstream commercial/corporate culture. I was in high school in the Pacific Northwest when grunge exploded and witnessed all the rich kids start to wear torn jeans and flannel coats; Green Day used to play in my friends basements & free concerts in city parks. Nowadays the sounds of rebellion are now safely sweetened, repackaged, safe commodities. It used to be dangerous and alienating to like such groups. Never in my wildest dream would I have imagined punk rock, death metal, grindcore, hardcore, etc become so big.

What is your perception on punk of today? Can you see the differences that have become in punk scene during this time?

I see men & women in their 40s-50s who seem to have not grown past who they were when they were 18 years old, at least that's my sceptical opinion especially when I so often see them with a partner half their age. For most people I think "punk" in 2014 is little more than a freak-fashion, but I do still appreciate that it represents rebellion more than any other subculture and in some parts of the world it is still fresh & vital. It offers the opportunity for people to question their world & injustices, but can also be like a modern-day religion and people too often forget above all it means "no rules". I see new young people who are looking for an alternative to mainstream culture yet being creative under a very different climate of resources; internet has changed how people discover culture and how we network. Everything is at a persons fingertips through the safe and insular porthole of your lonely home computer. Our naivety and excitement of real-life experience can easily be replaced by online social networking, and I am no exception to this; its made my life more insular too, because we all use computers. Nobody just shows up at your home unannounced or just randomly phones you anymore, its all text messages and emails.

What is punk in 2013-2014? Something different for everyone. I prefer the word "freak" over punk. Regarding image, in Europe these days there is mostly the generic crust-punk city warrior in all-black clothing with dread-locks. Of course looking beyond any stereotypes, there are some great people behind this image, but in my opinion any stereotypical image should be provoked and challenged. As I've become older I have learned that the most extreme looking people are often the biggest poseurs of all, and I do believe that some of the most intriguing and extraordinary people are those who may look totally normal.

As for music, I am a passéiste preferring the first wave of any genre, whether its 80s grind-core, funky 70s jazz, or 60s garage. I think that in this time, the most 'spirited' fresh & new sounds are in the new scenes. For example, the sounds coming from Lebanon on Tam 89's recent split 7" by Detox & Beirut Scum Society are phenomenal.

In my opinion, if punk is to flourish in the Western world, it must constantly search, break, and build itself over again. As soon as the sound is constrained, it has defeated itself. The punk scene must not surrender to a strict formula, but instead constantly provoke its peers.

What is your motivation after so many years and what gives you the strength to continue?

I consider my archival releases to be therapeutic; a healthy outlet to be obsessive about details/history and build an intimate relationship with people based on their creative peak. Playing music is like a placebo/cure against the many compromises I find myself making to survive. Now I play drums, but singing is still the ultimate soul-satisfaction for me.

My strength comes from love for humanity, culture, and those magic moments when you make someone smile and see a sparkle in their eyes. I'm a sensitive & sentimental person and without love and happiness life has no meaning to me. Generosity, being nonjudgmental, hospitable, humorous and friendly all go hand in hand when crossing cultures. Every time I step out of my comfort zone these values are reaffirmed.